‘The Judas Scar’ by Amanda Jennings – Book Review

Another book review! Ok, so there hasn’t been many recently but there’s going to be lots coming up. I’ve had some really great books to review, recently, so keep an eye out for more fab reads in the coming weeks.
This is a book club book that I was sent and I am, still, loving these book clubs as they constantly introduce me to new and exciting books that I’d never have known about before. ‘Judas Scar’ by Amanda Jennings is, actually, of the sort of genre that I often pick up but I’d not heard of this author before so I’m so grateful that this book was introduced to me, it’s a fantastic example of a character driven thriller, something I’ve not really read much before.
I really liked the cover of this book as it was eye catching but very different, not what you’d expect from something that’s got the sort of dark undertones that this book does. It’s clever because once you’ve read the book you can detect sinister notes to it, but before I read it I was surprised at how light it seemed (though obviously intriguing with the scar down the palm).

As ever I’m going to avoid spoilers like the plague but I want to give you an insight into the book and also in to the way it made me feel and what it made me think.

In the simplest of terms this book is about people. It’s about relationships between people and the way that they’re forged in both a negative and positive way. Essentially this book is about a man and his wife and what happens when a childhood friend of his comes back in to their lives; affected by their lives as children in a boarding school.In essence, this book is a thriller, but it doesn’t follow the typical paths of a thriller because it shows you people before anything else. With at thriller you’d expect to see a crime or an event and then discover how, who and why and whether or not something scary is going to happen again (I’d say that’s a pretty basic thriller summary?) but that’s where this book is different. In ‘Judas Scar’ you spend most of the time learning about the characters, about their relationships and then discovering how the present, and the past causes events to take place.

The book was a real page turner, it didn’t have that fast paced terror that a ‘normal thriller’ would try to have, instead it was gentler, subtler and infinitely more intelligent. It keeps you reading in exactly the same way, though. It’s gripping, you do not want to put it down and you Need to know what’s going to happen. I loved this book and once I read the end I almost picked it back up to read it again.

I really recommend this book if you like thrillers but also if you like books about people or, really, if you like books at all. I don’t think that this is a genre specific book, I think a lot of people would enjoy this one. You can buy ‘Judas Scar’ from Amazon in both paper and Kindle version.

I would love to know what you think of it if you’ve read it, or if you do read it. If not then what’s your favourite, recent, read? Anything I have to pick up this summer?

This book was sent to me for the purpose of reading for the BritMums book club as a PR sample – Please see my disclaimer here